Opera Version:58.0.3135.117 Opera is up to date but Videos don't play

A Former User

Fyi, h264 is a proprietary format, but it is not google's. Google, like ms and many more, is one of the companies that has a licence to use it in its software.

On top of that, h264 is backed by companies like arm (= 99.9% of mobile devices) and intel, so it gets hardware accelerated on pretty much any type of hardware. Plus, it has been widespread for at least half a decade, so its implementation on hardware and software is perfect by now.
.

A Former User @Guest

@jimunderscorep oh alright, thank you for the correction, you actually woke me up to something I wasn't realizing my ignorance on, I'll stop claiming as such.
sorry about that.

A Former User

alright, so I did research on another solution
apparently there's an extension (Google-only sadly) that can block H.264 encoding to use other available encoding formats
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/enhanced-h264ify/omkfmpieigblcllmkgbflkikinpkodlk

looks like youtube's been lying to me all this time because most of the videos (haven't ran into one that doesn't work yet, just being safe) I've been having issues with now work.

finally I can say good riddens, and it looks like I don't need to pester the authors anymore

A Former User

I don't get you...
Regardless of browser and html5 capabilities/implementations, do you want to use webm on youtube or not?

This addon is an... enhanced version of h264ify and nothing more. All they do is block youtube's codec detection, and all is done via js. This way, youtube plays in whatever codec you "allow" it to play. You can check it in youtube.com/html5 .

On top of the above, and assuming a browser supports all the codecs youtube can use, youtube forces the usage of webm for the videos, because it uses less bandwidth for the same resolution.
However, unlike h264, webm is not hardware accelerated, and that is noticeable with its bugger cpu usage, which results in choppy playback on weaker machines, bigger battery consumption on laptops etc.

And all that is just theories for opera, since it does not support h264 by default.

A Former User @Guest

@jimunderscorep said in Opera Version:58.0.3135.117 Opera is up to date but Videos don't play:

that is noticeable with its ~~bugger~~ bigger cpu usage

Typo

A Former User @Guest

@jimunderscorep said in Opera Version:58.0.3135.117 Opera is up to date but Videos don't play:

I don't get you...
Regardless of browser and html5 capabilities/implementations, do you want to use webm on youtube or not?

what's so hard to get? I can use webm just fine
but I'm not gonna bother patching Opera every week it updates
the extension stops youtube from prioritizing H.264 above other codecs (hence "block H.264"), which fixed about half my videos (youtube "lying to me").
yes after having some extended time with it (I only tested about 5 videos prior before posting earlier and just happened to get lucky they all worked), I ran into videos that still didn't play

so while I still need to pester the authors, at least now I can ask them to please provide VP8, VP9, etc encodings rather than to stop using H.264

A Former User

If you are fine with webm, I have no problem.
You do not have to do anything extra to make webm work in opera, as it is the only codec it can support on youtube, so installing extra addons like the one you mentioned is pointless.

Also, please keep in mind that youtube's live streams, e.g. nasa's, use h264 exclusively , there is not a "fallback" webm version for them, so they do not work in opera.
No idea about youtube's embedded videos on other pages.

A Former User @Guest

@jimunderscorep said in Opera Version:58.0.3135.117 Opera is up to date but Videos don't play:

You do not have to do anything extra to make webm work in opera, as it is the only codec it can support on youtube, so installing extra addons like the one you mentioned is pointless.

how is it pointless if I'm blocking a codec that doesn't work??
I can't use H.264, so blocking it to get some videos working (as stated previously) seems pretty pointful to me.

A Former User @Guest

@Tcll

Have you got 'Chromium Codecs extra? Check this, its works for me:

sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/chromium-browser/libffmpeg.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/libffmpeg.so

A Former User @Guest

@e51ja that's how I patched the browser every week when I was on Xubuntu

it's a nuisance to have to do, and I got tired of it, so I don't bother anymore
plus I don't even know if I can do so on Void Linux (haven't bothered trying)

as I said though, this doesn't fix the problem (not google's problem, at least I don't believe now), it only works around it.

again, the fix is to stop using H.264 when encoding your videos
if the codec doesn't wanna be public (requires a license to use) then let it have it's cake and stop using it.

A Former User @Guest

@Tcll
"the fix is to stop using H.264 when encoding your videos" i think it is not real to much

what about snap of opera?

A Former User @Guest

@e51ja I prefer AppImage builds instead of snaps or flatpaks since I can just download with my browser and run rather than having to install some bloated utility to install packages with.

plus I can even store AppImages on a separate HDD or flash drive, so if my OS corrupts I don't lose my programs.

but I haven't found one for Opera

if I'm making AppImage sound too perfect, it's not
in Etcher's case I need to install gconf2 before I can run it
otherwise an AppImage is just a single-file executable.

A Former User @Guest

@jimunderscorep yes

A Former User

Semi-offtopic, but I will post it here since all the other recent and relevant topics were closed.

Opera was updated to v62 today, so it will work with chromium ffmpeg codecs v75. If anyone has put chromium ffmpeg codecs v73 on hold, like I said in another forum, it is time to remove that hold and let apt upgrade the package.

I was also right in my prediction that opere would jump to v62 from v60, as I had predicted its jump from v58 to v60 a ~3 months ago.

A Former User @Guest

@jimunderscorep said in Opera Version:58.0.3135.117 Opera is up to date but Videos don't play:

like I said in another ~~forum~~ thread

@jimunderscorep said in Opera Version:58.0.3135.117 Opera is up to date but Videos don't play:

my prediction that ~~opere~~ opera would jump

Typos, typos...

A Former User

Hey folks, is anybody able to find a .deb package for version 75 of the chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra package? On my PC, v76 is now installed and obviously that breaks Opera's video support again.

A Former User

Found it!

Go to https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser
Look for your Ubuntu version (e.g. Bionic Beaver)
Click on latest Chromium Browser version
Scroll down, click on "chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra"
In "Published Versions", find previous version
Select that, then you should find a .deb download

A Former User

Open a linux terminal (I tested it on Ubuntu distribution) and do enter these commands (one per one):

curl -L -O https://github.com/iteufel/nwjs-ffmpeg-prebuilt/releases/download/0.39.2/0.39.2-linux-x64.zip

unzip 0.39.2-linux-x64.zip

sudo mv libffmpeg.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libffmpeg_h264.so

sudo mv /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/libffmpeg.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/libffmpeg.so.orig

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libffmpeg_h264.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/libffmpeg.so

A Former User @Guest

@pinportal After this, close and open Opera browser again. It will work videos from Fb.com, Twitter.com, etc (all websites that needs ffmpeg installed)

A Former User @Guest

@pinportal just want to note
after every opera update, your symlink will be overwritten

I used to do the same thing using chromium's direct libffmpeg.so and got tired of it...
I've just been telling people to stop using H.264 and use VP8 or VP9 instead
(VP8 is better as it's easier on your CPU)

if they don't want my like and watch time on YT, that's fine by me